


bury me underneath this bloody grave

by astronomical_ly



Series: we bare our teeth (in bloody grins) [1]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Angst, BAMF Percy Jackson, Blood and Injury, Bloodbending (Avatar), Bob | Iapetus Is A Sweetheart, Character Study, Cute, Dark Percy Jackson, Don't Judge Me, Fluff, Heavy Angst, Hurt Percy Jackson, I Don't Even Know, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Introspection, M/M, Minor Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson, Monsters, POV Percy Jackson, POV Third Person, Please Don't Kill Me, Post-Tartarus (Percy Jackson), Powerful Percy Jackson, Rare Pairings, Sad Percy Jackson, Self-Indulgent, This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things, Why Did I Write This?, as much fluff there can be when you're inside tartarus, but like with percy's powers, i mean???, im sorry, low-key parenting tartarus?, percy is a s a d b o i, we must make that into a tag
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-14
Updated: 2020-12-14
Packaged: 2021-03-10 16:34:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28070265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/astronomical_ly/pseuds/astronomical_ly
Summary: There is no one here to stop him from reaching out with a bruised hand and snagging monster blood, grabbing ahold of their dancing molecules and tearing them apart - no one here to stop his descent into becoming the thing he feared the most.or; What if Percy went through Tartarus alone?
Relationships: Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson (past)(minor), Bob | Iapetus/Percy Jackson
Series: we bare our teeth (in bloody grins) [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2056647
Comments: 22
Kudos: 214





	bury me underneath this bloody grave

**Author's Note:**

> hi guys, it's auroni, and look... ok so see, i just came up with this right before i went to sleep and the idea just stuck into my head goodness me this will most likely be a drabble, but it's definitely extremely dark percy, more so darker than i ever have written... and then the whole thing with bob came in and then i basically wrote the whole thing over again to include bob he is literally an awkward sweetheart we stan <3 also: ahahaha this might become a series bc i really want an overthrowing the gods kind of fic ngl. but we'll see...

He learns that there is no good or evil in the world when he is slowly dying of gorgon poison deep in the bowels of a red and black pit, alone and on his hands and knees, breathing through the blood in his lungs.

There is just power and the overwhelming, the choking desire to survive - to _live_. 

His primary instinct has always been to survive, to claw his way out of quests and prophecies, to come out of it _alive_ , no matter what it took to get there. (But he's always kept the darkest part of himself hidden, buried deep inside him.)

He looks at the Arae circling him through half-lidded eyes, the molecules in their blood humming, and he wonders, not for the first time - _it's blood can i control blood_ _?_ \- before looking around instinctively for Annabeth; Annabeth, who would tightly hold his hand in hers, Annabeth, who would whisper, tell him, _It's going to be okay Percy, don't do this_ \- and then he realizes Annabeth isn't here with him. (They've been over for months.)

He doesn't have the Curse of Achilles anymore, but the thought is the same - his mortal anchor is not here. (To be honest, he's not sure _who_ his mortal anchor is anymore.) 

There is no one here to stop him from reaching out with a bruised hand and snagging monster blood, grabbing ahold of their dancing molecules and tearing them apart _-_ no one here to stop his descent into becoming the thing he feared the most.

He doesn't want to - but the fact remains that there is no other way if he wants to get out of here alive. (He will leave this place broken and bruised - but alive. Still breathing.)

In this world - as Percy has come to learn - the only choices are to kill or be killed.

And he is nothing if not a survivor.

(Percy has faced Death in the eyes too many times to know that everyone has a limit. 

A breaking point. This is his.)

So he reaches out with a trembling hand, focusing on the singing blood at his fingertips, and _pulls_. He rips the Arae apart, as their veins and arteries burst with all the excitement of fireworks, and that is how Bob finds him twenty seconds later, standing in the middle of the bloody remains of monsters, breathing heavily, trying to spit the thick taste of poison from his tongue.

 _Human_. _Monster_. What remains of Perseus Jackson is something in between.

•

Bob wants to take him to a ‘friendly giant’ - as if a giant could ever be anything friendly - for his treatment of gorgon poison, but Percy declines, gently squeezing Bob's large, warm, hands, telling him he can take care of it himself.

Bob is a mixture of skeptical and concerned, understandably so, but when Percy controls the poison running through his veins and expels them out through his mouth, and turns to look around at Bob afterward, one eyebrow cocked, in a silent, _what were you saying?_ Bob's face is one of wary respect, muted admiration, and awe - something else is there too. 

Something that looks very much like fear.

( _Good_.

This is Tartarus, the scarier he can become, the more the monsters will leave him alone.)

•

Instead of heading to the aforementioned ‘friendly giant’, Bob guides him to the edge of Night, the heavy but steady presence of his hand on Percy's shoulder, squeezing lightly before coming to a stop, letting Percy walk into the black mist that indicates Nyx's presence.

Before Nyx and her children can get a word in, Percy is blowing apart each and every one of them, and he savors the look of fear on Nyx's face when he turns to her, saving her for last.

“I wonder...” Percy mocks, as he sticks out a hand, “How long it would take for a Primordial like you to _break_.”

His hand slowly curls into a fist as Nyx begins to scream, her blood boiling to unimaginable temperatures, silver ichor seeping out of her nostrils, the corner of her eyes. (And something inside Percy - a smooth glass ball - begins to break.)

In the end, Percy lets Nyx keep her life in exchange for safe passage through the Mansion of Night. 

Percy walks back to where he left Bob waiting, wanting to see him one last time before taking the plunge into almost infinite darkness. He presses a chaste kiss to Bob's cheek and smiles fondly at the expression of surprise that blooms on his pale skin.

He laughs in surprised delight when Bob bends down to swoop him up in one of his dramatic bear hugs. They let themselves share this one moment of warmth before Percy tears himself away from the steady warmth and pressing comfort of Bob and promises him he will see him on the other side.

Nyx may have granted him safe passage but he does not dare to open his eyes as he walks through her mansion, however. (He's not _that_ stupid.)

•

Killing Achlys is almost comically easy. She is arrogant, like so many of the gods and deities he's met before. She underestimates his power, and Percy knows how she thinks. She thinks, _what can this tiny demigod child do to me? I have lived for thousands of years, I cannot be bested by a mere child_ -

And yet. 

This underestimation will be her downfall; Ares, Kronos, so many others - they have always underestimated him, and that has always been their downfall. 

It is hers as well.

When her poison recedes and flows away from him, when the poison begins to drown her, Percy can only think of how fitting a punishment this can be. (After failing to drown others with her misery, she drowns herself in it. This is poetic justice. One that has long since been coming.)

Percy laughs in the face of her fear and grins, bares his teeth in a predatory smile, as he _rips_ and _tears_ with his hands as if conducting a symphony.

When Achlys bursts into a million golden bloody pieces, Percy thinks, _Good riddance_.

(Somewhere inside of him, the glass ball shatters completely. 

He has broken. Finally. For good.

He's been wondering since he was fourteen, how long it would take.)

•

When he comes out from the misting fog of Achlys' misery, Bob is there just like he promised he would be, and he picks him up and kisses him with an almost erratic fervor.

Percy kisses back twice as hard, biting down on his lip, tasting the salty sweetness of Bob's golden ichor. Nothing really matters except for this moment, the two of them, pressed together, breathing the air between their mouths.

They stumble backward with the force of their kissing, and they keep stumbling, they stumble and stumble until they hit something hard, which turns out to be a rocky wall.

Bob lays Percy down into a secluded corner, where Percy pulls Bob on top of him, wanting to lose himself in his presence. Bob cleans the ichor of dead goddess off of Percy with gentle, calloused hands, kissing a pathway down Percy's jaw, his neck, the column of his throat, his chest. Wherever his lips touch, Percy's skin burns. 

When Bob goes to move inside of him, Percy whispers, “Don't hurt me, okay? It's my first time.”

Bob responds in kind, “I could never hurt you, Perseus,” and something wonderful unfurls - _ignites_ \- within Percy's chest.

He's never liked his full name, but when Bob whispers it, lustful and admiring, soft and quiet, he's never loved it more.

They drown themselves in each other, in waves of lust and pleasure, admiration and love, so tightly wound into each other that Percy can't tell where he ends and where Bob begins. (Percy has this irrational fear of drowning - but this sort of drowning feels a thousand times better. He would drown himself like this every day if he could.)

Afterward, when they lay sweating and panting on the rocky floor, wrapped in each other, covered in bruises and scratches and bite marks, Percy tells Bob why he was covered in pieces of deity. Bob's mouth flattens, the look in his eyes unreadable.

“Are you afraid of me?” Percy asks quietly, something inside his chest tightening at the thought of Bob being scared of him - of what he can do to Bob if he ever gets angry enough -

One hand, the hand that is buried inside Percy's hair, tugs sharply on his dark locks as if knowing what is going on in Percy's head, and Bob whispers, full of conviction, “I could never be afraid of you. I will _never_ be afraid of you.”

Percy's answering smile is positively _breathtaking_ and Bob can't help himself when he leans over to kiss it from his lips. Percy arcs up, slipping his tongue into the warm cavern of Bob's mouth - they drink themselves full to the brim, like they'd been starving men their entire lives and only now had gotten a taste of what they can have - and the feeling is beautiful.

A war continuously rages on, but at this moment, nothing exists beyond the two of them.

•

Percy should be more scared, standing face to face with Tartarus. (He really should. Bob had split ways with Percy - to recruit an ally, apparently - to the promise of _coming back_ , but Percy can't help but miss the comfort his strong, steady body, provides.) 

But really, he can't bring himself to pay attention to the swirling storm of purple and black, thick muscled legs, and strong arms that can easily break Percy in half.

Instead, all that remains in his mind is _survive survive survive i have to live livelivelive_ and he realizes. He is encompassed in Tartarus' body. Like any other god - any other Primordial - Tartarus is made of ichor. (Or maybe he isn't - instead in his veins run the Five Rivers of the Underworld.) Percy almost laughs at how easy the answer comes to him. He's surrounded by trillions of gallons of water.

Take away Tartarus' version of blood - better yet, _suffocate_ Tartarus with it - and Percy can win this. (Or at the very least, incapacitate Tartarus long enough for Percy to make his escape. He's close. So _close_.) 

The look in Tartarus' endless black eyes when he finds out he can't move his arms and legs is something Percy will remember likely for the rest of his life.

He's _afraid_.

Percy revels in this newfound desire of being able to cause this _Primordial_ unbearable pain, and stares at his hands, marveling at how that much power is right at the tips of his fingers, silently waiting to come in use again.

(He knows he's powerful - but this - this something else. If he can cause Tartarus himself this much pain, then - then could he not singlehandedly kill Gaea and the giants and end this war for good?)

For a moment, everything - everyone - is stunned into silence. Percy looks up and smiles, the edges of his mouth razor sharp. “Come and get me, then,” he taunts.

There's a split second as the monsters waver - then; they attack. And Percy throws himself into the fray.

In the next ten minutes, Percy is a whirlwind of clothes and glowing bronze, slicing and stabbing his way through Tartarus' army. He bears no protection upon his skin but nothing touches him - and when they do, the pain is so little compared to what he knows he can take... that for this moment, he feels invincible.

He's evolved into something no one knows or can name - but he's okay with that. 

Percy's always known he was going to break. When all he's known since he was a child is blood and gore and wars and killing, it was obvious what would happen to him in the end. He knew he was going to break. It was all just a matter of when. 

Just like he does with Nyx, Percy bargains Tartarus' continued existence for his freedom. 

And Tartarus lets him go, after taking a long, considering look at him. Percy feels a little more than bewildered, he doesn't know why Tartarus gave in to his wishes so easily - but he sure in Hades isn't about to start complaining about it. 

(The real reason Tartarus lets Percy go, the reason Percy himself will never know, is because, in the end, Tartarus notes the sheer amount of _power_ and _will_ and the overwhelming desire to _live_ in this child, and laughs inside, wishing the impertinent Gods in the realm above luck in controlling him - in making him dance to their petty whims.

This demigod, Perseus Jackson, may not know it yet, but he is a force to be reckoned with.)

•

Bob comes to his rescue at the last moment - because of _course_ he does, the adorable idiot, Percy thinks, but Percy sure as hell isn't leaving him here to the mercy of Tartarus - someone as pure and as wonderful as Bob does not deserve to be locked up inside with these monsters.

(It doesn't matter who Bob had been before - who he is now - who he will forever remain - is what matters. Percy can't bring himself to feel guilty for wiping Bob's memory those three years ago, no matter how hard he wants to - if he knew that wiping his memory would get them here, he would have done it ages ago.)

Bob is more than ready to fight, of course, to charge Tartarus' army on Percy's command, before Percy tells him that there is no need, that he bargained his way out already. (His only wish is that Bob would wait and judge a little before blindly trusting anyone and everyone. Because even the good guys have limits, sometimes. Even the good guys sometimes go bad. Percy himself is an example of that.)

Bob turns to Percy when he goes to board the Doors of Death, and says, “Tell the sun and the stars hello for me.”

Percy smiles as he traces the curve of Bob's cheekbone, leaning forward to press a light kiss at the corner of his right eye, and whispers, “Tell them yourself, darling.”

Bob's answering grin is beautiful, seeming to light up the very room.

The two of them step into the Doors of Death together, watching as the elevator doors close on the faces of Tartarus and his army, blatantly watching them leave.

Percy breathes, and for now, the war with the Giants, the prospect of seeing Annabeth again, _everything_ else, doesn't matter.

 _They're free_.

**Author's Note:**

> yes well, i hope you liked it, leave kudos comments whatever you want, don't leave them if you don't want to, and good afternoon, i will see you next time ;) 
> 
> come yell at me on my tumblr: [@astronomicall-y](https://astronomicall-y.tumblr.com/)  
> or my twitter: [@astronomicall_y](https://twitter.com/astronomicall_y)  
> link to my discord server if you wanna come and chat: [astronomically idiotic](https://discord.gg/MTYBm5Y7)


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